Guest Post from Sustainable Fitness Coach-- Stress and how it effects you

Hey my lovelies today i have a guest post from my wonderful friend David McKinley, a great guy with a wealth of knowledge. He will be sharing three posts over the next few months on a few different areas. Today's post is all about stress and how it negatively affects the body

Hope you all enjoy it

We are all stressed right?

From the student that has exams coming up or the mum that is trying to hold down a job and take care of the kids and try and have a social life of some description, let’s not forget all you stressed bloggers out there. :-) 

Over the next 3 blog posts from me I will be covering 3 topics:

1. The cause of stress and the Negative impact it can have on the body
2. Why you might want to use exercise to combat stress
3. What exercise types to use and how to fit them in to a busy schedule.

First of all what is stress?

The dictionary says "pressure or tension exerted on a material object”

In this instance the material object referred to here will be you!

Stress is everywhere in our life and different triggers exist for different people:

• Work
• Money
• Time
• Partners
• Children
• The news

Some of these things have a really positive effect on our lives but they also bring stress with them. That doesn’t mean they are a bad thing.

One thing I would like you to think about is that none of these things actually cause stress in your life. Stress is caused by you, not the things you perceive it to be. It's how you react to the things above and other factors that cause the stress.

Have you ever noticed how certain things will stress some people but not affect others? This is simply about how people react differently to stress triggers, even the most laid back people have something that will do it for them.

So what actually happens in your body when you are stressed?

Sorry if it get’s too technical here- 

The stress response starts with a signal from the part of your brain linked to the autonomic nervous system, which rules involuntary body functions such as breathing, blood pressure, heartbeat, and digestion. Your heart pounds faster, muscles tighten, blood pressure rises, breath quickens, and your senses become sharper. These physical changes increase your strength and stamina, speed your reaction time, and enhance your focus—preparing you to either fight or flee from the danger at hand.


At the same time, the body functions not needed for fight or flight—such as the digestive and immune systems—stop working and the repair or growth of body tissues slows. Your body isn’t brilliant at knowing what is an everyday annoyance and what is actually something that is threatening.

As a side note this is why some people feel sick when they are stressed, if you have food in your stomach your body has decided it isn’t going to need it within the next few minutes so it decides to get rid of it the quickest way it can (throwing up).

One of the effects of long term stress is increased Insulin resistance, it does this to leave more energy available for your muscles (remember we are in fight or flight) with more glucose (sugar) in your blood for long periods of time you are more susceptible to type 2 diabetes. 

Also you will have Cortisol pumping around your body, its main purpose is to replenish your energy stores and you have done the fighting or the fleeing so it will make you hungry and over eat, this isn’t very helpful in our modern world when stress is elevated for long periods of time because it causes you to be hungry. Every heard of stress eating? This is what causes it.

In summary 

Stress = more sugar in your blood = increased risk of Diabetes

Stress = more Cortisol = higher hunger levels and likelihood of overeating leading to weight gain.

Stress = No Bueno!

In the next blog I will talk about Exercise and the effect it has to reduce stress on the body.

A little bit about me - 

I’m someone who has always worked with people, retail, bars, customer service and now helping them gain confidence and feel better about themselves.

I know what it’s like, I’ve been there. I was always the chubby kid and that followed me into Uni where I piled on a lot of weight and then into my mid twenties.

I tried some extreme things where I cut out all carbs or tried to cut down my calories by cutting out entire meals! I was never in to exercise or the gym and had no clue what I was doing. 

I HATED MYSELF - I was really unconfident, didn’t like shopping for clothes or going out much because of how I felt about myself.

This was until I had had enough one day, the pain of the pressure I was putting on myself and the unhappiness I had about my body just got too much and I decided to do something about it. a long story and several years later I’m now much more confident about myself, I love going out and getting compliments and actually like going shopping for clothes knowing that I can find things I want to wear.

If you want to ask me any questions about Health, nutrition, or fitness in general you can drop me an email - David@sustainablefitnescoach.com

Like the Facebook page and send me a message on there — sustainablefitnesscoach

I’m also on Instagram - @sustainablefitnesscoach

Thanks to David for a great post, and I am sure you will all look forward to his nexr one about how exercise can reduce the effect of stress on the body

Bye for now my lovelies

Ali xxx